Larry Williams Drive

I can tell you now, the Government’s plan to lump congestion charging on Aucklanders is not going to be popular. From the hints being dropped, it sounds like the Government might announce this congestion charge next Monday. The cost might be 3.50 each way, so if you’re traveling both in and out of the city daily, that’s $7 a day, $35 a week. And they could bring it in from 2025, but might be leaning towards doing it as early as next year. Now as I say, I don’t think this is going to be popular. There’s a poll up on the Herald and 75% of voters don’t support it. Don’t write that off as an untrustworthy opt-in poll too quickly. It almost perfectly mirrors what people told the Select Committee when it was considering congestion charging last year: 70% of people said no. I think we all know a congestion charge is inevitable – if only because we’ve talked about it for so long it’s got to happen eventually. But the devil is in the detail and there are a thousand ways this already unpopular idea could get even more